Shopify Shares rose more than 25% in Tuesday morning trading after the Canadian e-commerce company posted better-than-expected third-quarter revenue and gave an upbeat forecast for the holiday shopping season.

Here’s how the company did it:

• Income: 64 cents per share. That may not compare to the LSEG estimates.
• Gain: $2.16 billion versus $2.12 billion expected by LSEG

Shopify said it expects revenue to grow at a rate in the mid-to-mid 20s in the current quarter. That exceeded Wall Street expectations of 22.8% for revenue growth, according to FactSet.

Gross merchandise volume, or the total volume of merchandise sold on the platform, rose 24% year over year to $69.7 billion in the third quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a GMV of $68.1 billion.

Shopify sells software for merchants running online businesses, as well as services such as advertising and payment processing tools. The company has invested heavily in marketing in recent months, even at the risk of short-term profit shrinkage as it looks to gain even more market share. The company competes with e-commerce giants Amazon And Walmartas well as software providers such as Salesforce And BigCommerce.

On a call with investors, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said a growing number of major retailers and companies signed up for its services during the quarter, pointing to Lionsgate Entertainment, shoemaker Reebok and luxury fashion brand Off-White, along with handbag company Vera Bradley and Hanes .

“Shopify is increasingly becoming the platform of choice, not just for entrepreneurship, but for commerce as a whole,” Finkelstein said. “We are well positioned for expanded growth across seller segments, sizes, regions, channels and products.”

Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister said on the call that the upbeat fourth-quarter forecast is “driven by the same factors that have supported our strong revenue growth results so far this year,” including “assumptions around the continued strength of our merchant GMV . “

Shopify shares are up about 45% year to date. The Nasdaq is up about 37% over the same period.